Troublemakers Blog
![On a boarded up section of a brick wall, three posters. The outer two show Snoop Dogg's face, and the middle one shows a hand making a "V" gesture. Text of the 3 posters: 1. "I'm voting because I want to end police brutality." 2. "We need your vote. Black lives matter. Black votes matter. Register here. [QR code.]" 3. "I'm voting this election for the first time because I can't stand to see that punk in office another year."](https://labornotes.org/sites/default/files/styles/blog_thumb/public/main/blogposts/Untitled%20design%20%2811%29.png?itok=BJw-EePj)
October 29, 2020 /
“It can’t happen here.” That is the complacent mantra that a society with long-standing “democratic” institutions couldn’t possibly succumb to authoritarian dictatorship. »
October 28, 2020 / Joe DeManuelle-Hall
As the recession deepens, unions will have to battle concession demands and budget cuts. But beyond these defensive fights there’s a demand whose time has come: let’s soak the rich.
Put another way: tax the hell out of them. Claw back the profits they’ve made off the backs of workers. Take that money, and put it to work expanding public services and giving »
October 22, 2020 /
During his 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump dissed a Gold Star family that had lost a son in Iraq. He called Senator John McCain, America’s most famous prisoner of war, a “loser” for being captured in Vietnam. When asked about widespread sexual assault in today’s military, he dismissed it as a problem. »
October 21, 2020 /
Part 1: The Name of the Game Is Class Struggle
It’s no secret that, over the last 40 years, income inequality has soared in the United States.
In the late 1970s, the top 10 percent of the U.S. population, ranked by income, received about one-third of total U.S. income. They now receive about half of total income. »
October 20, 2020 /
In his article "With City's Economic Future in Doubt, Can New York Unions Stop the Cuts?," Chris Maisano analyzes the looming effects of the pandemic on public workers and the services they provide in New York City. »
October 19, 2020 /
George Floyd was murdered by police after a retail worker reported that he had paid with an allegedly counterfeit $20 bill, and we know this was no isolated incident. So at the bookstore where I work, many of us have been thinking about the times when police have been called to our workplace. »
October 09, 2020 /
On day two of their five-day strike, Alameda Health System workers in California's East Bay won a landmark victory. After years of stalling, the elected Board of Supervisors of Alameda County suddenly announced they would disband the unelected Board of Trustees that has long mismanaged this public safety-net health care system. »
October 05, 2020 / Jane Slaughter
Detroit bus drivers, the first essential workers in the country to strike for safety during the pandemic, pulled a wildcat work stoppage again Friday, angry over escalating violence against drivers. »
October 05, 2020 /
The American Federation of Teachers had its work cut out for it at its 2020 convention in July. In the last two years, more than 400,000 teachers had hit the streets in strikes and protests, from North Carolina and New Jersey to Arizona and California, with a red-shirted panorama in »
September 28, 2020 /
Our health care employer announced hundreds of unnecessary layoffs this spring. Outraged at its poorly disguised greed, we didn’t just rely on negotiations. Instead, the members of our union voted unanimously to take the fight to the streets and into the community. We spent the summer fighting back—including holding our local’s first-ever pickets. »